


We Were Never Victors

by oh_well (oh_well1)



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: 75th Hunger Games, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Experimental Style, F/M, Quarter Quell, You've been warned, this is not a happy one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-17 13:25:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11852511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oh_well1/pseuds/oh_well
Summary: The one where Haymitch doesn’t share his rescue plans, the mission fails, and everything goes terribly wrong.“I’ll see you at midnight.” QQ. Canon divergence.





	1. I'll see you at midnight

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Hunger Games or the sentences borrowed.

Katniss and Peeta forget who the real enemy is. Or maybe they only wanted to keep each other safe, alive. 

 

Katniss killed Finnick. She killed Johanna. Peeta killed Brutus, Beete, Enobaria.

 

They didn’t know they could trust, they didn’t know there was a plan.

They only saw Johanna hitting Katniss in the head and cutting up her arm and Katniss’ scream in the night. And then there was Brutus killing Chaff and Beete was unconscious. And the alliance had been broken.

 

And they both make it to the end.

But this time there isn't a rule change. There isn't a claw dropping from the sky to take them out alive.

 

There's only a few of her arrows and Peeta's hands covered in blood. There's their wounds and bruises and scars.

There's their hearts breaking and their eyes dimming, dying.

There's giving up hope.

 

There's their fingers knotting together and their cheeks stained with silent tears.

There's unspoken agreements and unsaid apologies and words that neither will ever get to utter.

 

There's a kiss goodbye.

Soft. Lingering. _I'm sorry, I’m sorry, Stay with me, I love_ ─

There's no _I love you_ ’s _._  Saying it out loud would only make it worse.

 

 

And then there's waiting for midnight by the tree.

There's trying to breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, together. Together.

 

~~_I hope my last breath is a sigh of relief_ ~~

 

 

 

Until lightning strikes.

 

 

 

 

 


	2. The aftermath

Haymitch is friendless. Plutarch gets killed. Cinna was already dead. Thirteen backs away.

The rebellion dies.

 

They bury matching empty wooden caskets. Prim mourns. Mrs. Everdeen drifts. Buttercup hunts.

Haymitch takes them in.

 

The 75th Hunger Games are deemed a failure. _The most unpopular in history_ , Templesmith says. They get cancelled.

 

Gale works in the mines. He plots and marries and has children and grows old and the rebellion never comes.

Andronicus Snow takes over.

 

Panem lives on.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well this is just sad

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts, specially since this was kind of experimental writing.
> 
> The line "I hope my last breath is a sigh of relief" is not mine, but I don't know who wrote it either (I've seen it around on tumblr and aesthetic posts).


End file.
